With the arrival of three new container cranes from Shanghai last month, the Port of Oakland is anticipating increased cargo throughput. According to Omar Benjamin, the port's executive director, Oakland had a 30 percent increase in its maritime cargo imports and an 11 percent increase in outbound cargo exports compared to a year ago. “There are glimmers of economic recovery on the horizon,” Benjamin said. “And people are beginning to feel the negative news of the past several months beginning to thaw and give way to better days.” In a letter to shippers, Benjamin also noted that Union Pacific Railroad recently opened its Donner Pass route located in the Sierra Nevada mountain range to domestic double-stack intermodal container freight traffic.

Industry experts agree that costs across all sectors worldwide will continue to rise in 2018, and the most successful shippers will be those that are able to mitigate their impact on profitability. And, the right technology will play an increasingly vital role in driving efficiencies across the global logistics network.

There are three primary models of Identity and Access Management (IAM) technology that CTOs, CSOs, and Supply Chain executives are using to enhance their trading partner communities. While each leverages IAM and the IoT as core components only an “Outside-in” approach truly connects people, systems and things reliably and securely across the supply chain.